Ai Weiwei Won’t Be Intimidated by Chinese Thugs: Martin Gayford

In Ai Weiwei, the globalized
contemporary art world has found its first true star.

No other artist from outside Western Europe and the U.S.
has established such worldwide fame, so quickly. Now, for many,
he has become its prisoner of conscience.

Internationally, his schedule of exhibitions continues to
unfold. In London, two are set to open next month, one at the
Lisson Gallery (May 13 to July 16), and another in the Somerset
House courtyard (12 May to June 26). The artist has disappeared
into the Kafkaesque black hole of the Chinese legal system.

Ai was arrested at Beijing Airport on April 3, and since
then -- despite widespread expressions of concern from, among
others, the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- not a
word has been heard from him. His family, it was reported by the
BBC, still don’t know where he is, whether he has been charged
with an offense or even whether he has been formally arrested.

On April 14, a state-backed publication in Hong Kong, the
Wen Wei Po newspaper, stated that Ai was being investigated for
tax evasion (crimes of bigamy and putting obscene images on the
Internet also were mentioned).

“Ai Weiwei has had quite a good attitude in co-operating
with the investigation and has begun to confess,” the report
continued. Since then, nothing more has been heard about that.

Brave Critic

My guess, on the basis of having met and talked with Ai
last autumn, is that the long silence is the result of his
refusal to “confess” to anything. He struck me as a formidable
individual, and almost recklessly brave in his outspokenness
about the Chinese political system. It seems likely that, given
the chance, he would denounce what has happened to him in
eloquent terms. That message immediately would be relayed around
the world.

The longer this goes on, the more worrying it gets. Ai is
53. He suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes, according
to his wife. Two years ago, in August 2009, he was struck
violently on the head by a Chinese policeman, one of several who
burst into his hotel room in the early hours of the morning. He
asked for identification, and that was the reply.

A month later, while installing an exhibition in Munich, he
suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. On that occasion his life was
saved by a German surgeon who carried out an emergency
operation. Understandably, there are now fears for his well-
being.

Can China just shrug off outrage about Ai and his fate? The
2008 Beijing Olympics were a symbol of China taking its proper
place in the world community. Ai was crucial to that as he
collaborated with architects Herzog & de Meuron on the design of
the “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium.

Venice Opening

It’s hard to believe Chinese participation at the 2011
Venice Biennale, which opens on June 4, could go ahead without
protests unless Ai is released. That, too, would be symbolic --
of Chinese indifference to international opinion. As for Ai
himself, the prospects look bleak. How can he be allowed to
speak out again without an enormous loss of official face?

Here, though, is one declaration he would probably make if
he could. Almost the last words he said in our conversation last
year were about contemporary Chinese justice: “Nobody has any
trust in the judicial system, because it’s not independent. It’s
manipulated by the party.”